G20 leaders commit to ending poverty and inequality
17 November 2014
The G20 Leaders’ Summit in Brisbane, Australia, has committed to
improving the G20 countries’ GDP by at least an additional 2% by 2018.
Speaking at the end of the summit which ran from 15 to 16 November,
South African President Jacob Zuma said the G20 countries also agreed to
enhance investment and trade, significantly increase job creation, as
well as implement a growth strategy with the aim of reducing inequality
and poverty.
“This year's G20 Summit was organised differently as it focused mainly
on measures to achieve economic growth globally and to create jobs by
lifting the world's GDP by 2%. Australia, as the current chair of the
G20, has kept the agenda of the Summit focused on issues related to the
global economy, development, growth and trade,” said Zuma.
Current developments in G20 countries
During the Summit, G20 member countries briefed their peers on the
current developments in their respective regions. In
this regard, South Africa provided an African perspective on a number of
issues such as the global economy and trade, infrastructure
development, inclusive growth, the global financial situation and
combating the scourge of Ebola, amongst others.
On the current global economic situation, President Zuma said G20
countries need to, amongst others actions, accelerate infrastructure
development especially in Africa in order to sustain global growth.
“This will help lift intra-Africa trade and contribute immensely toward
enabling our continent to industrialise and to create jobs in high value
sectors, so that Africa can produce value - added manufactured goods,”
he said.
G20 Global Infrastructure Hub
The G20 Global Infrastructure Hub, knowledge-sharing platform between
G20 governments, the private sector, development banks and other
international organisations established during the Summit, will act as a
conduit to promote intra-Africa trade and form linkages with
other G20 countries.
The Summit also agreed that International Financial Institutions (IFIs)
needed a relook, as emerging markets and developing economies now
account for the largest share of global growth.
“This shift in the structure of the global economy must be reflected in
the governance structures of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and
World Trade Organisation (WTO),” said Zuma.
International tax system
G20 leaders also made a commitment to modernise the international tax
system, as this was critical to ensuring fairness, and to secure
countries' revenue bases. Commenting on this recommendation by the
leaders, Zuma said although tax loss attributable to base erosion and
profit shifting has not been quantitatively measured, there are
indications that developing countries suffer severe tax revenue losses
due to these practices.
“All countries with open economies stand to benefit when multinationals
pay their fair share of taxes. We
support the work done by the [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development] to co-ordinate international efforts to curb base erosion
and profit shifting.
“We have already implemented measures in our domestic tax legislation
in relation to base erosion and profit shifting. We are fully committed
to resolving outstanding technical and policy issues and to finalise
these by the end of 2015,” Zuma said.
Agreement to exchange information
South Africa is among 51 countries that signed the Agreement on
Automatic Exchange to Financial Information in Berlin, Germany, in
October 2014. In this light, Zuma said South Africa is on the way to
realising the agreement and by 2017, the country would have systems in
place to share information.
“We feel strongly that we must continue to contribute towards
strengthening tax administration capacities of developing and low income
countries to fully participate in this reform agenda,” Zuma said.
South
Africa called for open channels of communication amongst regulators
across borders. Recently, South Africa asked the Financial Stability
Board and other international Standard Setting Bodies to make concerted
outreach efforts to consult with and include the experiences of emerging
market and developing countries, as well as other non-G20 countries.
On trade, Zuma said the African continent wants to move from being a net
exporter of raw materials to exporting value-added goods through
beneficiation and manufacturing. “In this regard, Africa has adopted an
ambitious industrialisation, infrastructure development and market
integration programme,” he said.
Ebola
On Ebola scourge in some parts of West Africa, Zuma said South Africa
and Senegal made a presentation to the leaders on the need to work
together in addressing the serious challenge posed by the epidemic.
In a statement, G20 leaders pledged to contribute more resources in
curtailing the outbreak of
Ebola and thanked international organisations such as the United
Nations, World Bank, IMF and others, for their support and
contributions. The leaders recognised the need to support international
efforts to contain and control the epidemic.
BRICS meeting
As is usual during the G20 Leaders’ Summit, Brazil, Russia, India, China
and South Africa (BRICS) held a meeting on the side-lines to discuss
the agenda of the G20 Summit and to provide input on issues such as
economic growth and development and the role that business can play in
stimulating economic growth. The BRICS leaders also thrashed out
infrastructure development in Africa and the topical issue of the
current Ebola epidemic.
SAnews.gov
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